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La settima lettione di m[esser] Pietro Orsilago da Pisa sopra il sonetto del Petrarca Passa la nave mia colma d’oblio

Overview

Place of Publication

Florence
Italy

Date of Publication
1549
Mode of exegesis
Related to Petrarch's

RVF 189

Academy

Accademia Fiorentina, Florence
Italy

Description

Physical Description: Format

8o; A8-B8, C10; [26] fols.

Physical Description: Textblock

paper; Petrarch’s poem in italic type and lecture in roman type; no printed numbering; single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems set on left, with prose text of lecture distributed across the page beneath each of them; title within architectural frame.

Visual Elements
Title Page

LA SETTIMA | LETTIONE DI M[ESSER] | PIETRO ORSILAGO | DA PISA | Sopra il Sonetto del | Petrarca | Passa la naue mia colma d’oblio. | [Medici’s coat of arms] | IN FIRENZE. MDXLIX | Con Privuilegio

Internal Description

A1r: title page;

A1v: blank;

A2r-A2v: Pietro Orsilago’s dedicatory letter to Cosimo de’ Medici (‘All’illustriss[imo] et vero signore il signor Cosimo Medici duca di Fiorenza etc. A Pisa’);

A3r-C10v: Orsilago’s academic lecture on RVF 189 (<inc> Anchora che ’l passaggiero più, e più volte da le torbide, e tempestose onde marine fuor d’ogni sua speranza à saluamento; <exp> pongo fine à questi miei lunghi ragionamenti).

Copy Seen

Location

John Rylands Library
Manchester
United Kingdom

Shelfmark
Bullock Collection 1447
Notes

The lecture provides a word-by-word paraphrase and exposition of the sonnet focusing on the metaphors and poetic images used, often elucidated by cross-references to other Petrarchan texts and to classical philosophers (Plato and Aristotle) and authors (Homer and Seneca). The lecture starts as a passionate speech describing a metaphorical journey before introducing Petrarch’s sonnet. Authors mentioned include Homer, Aristotle, Seneca, and Cino da Pistoia.
 
RVF 189 is printed at fols. A6v-A7r. Other Petrarchan texts mentioned include: RVF 355 (A7r and C9v); RVF 366 (A7v); RVF 365 (A8r); RVF 28 (A8v and C10r); RVF 323 (B1r); RVF 235 (B1v and C5r); RVF 80 (B4r, C2v, C9r and C10r); RVF 129 (B7r); RVF 264 (C1r); RVF 240 (C1v); RVF 178 (C2r); RVF 88 (C5v); RVF 73 (C6r); RVF 132 (C6v); RVF 105 (C7v); Triumphus Eternitatis 1-6 (C8v); RVF 62 (C9r).

Bibliography

Kennedy 1994, 292